Travis' Music Blog: Week 1

Hey All!

My name is Travis Fodor and I'm a rising sophomore at NYU studying for my B.A in Music. I currently run a Guitar Lesson service through my own home, and offer live DJing for graduation parties and other backyard events. Every Tuesday starting today I will be blogging about music, lessons, and my life as a musician up in Manhattan the last year. My first blogpost involves a question that I think many parents find themselves asking when their young ones show an early interest in learning guitar. "Should I make the investment?"

Showing interest in music at a young age is a great thing! But parents are hesistant to jump into it.

The famous home video of pre-natal Travis starts with a closeup of my mom's face. Covered in 80's garb from head to toe (big hair and all) the sound of her voice is blocked out by Van Halen roaring in the background. The camera moves down to reveal some popcorn sitting on her huge baby belly. Apparently I loved Van Halen even before I was born because the popcorn was bouncing all over my mom's stomach as I layed there rocking out!!

Looking back, it was evident that I was raised in a music environment for as long as I existed. 

Sure, this may not be the case for every child, but regardless, kids want to pick up instruments. For some, it may be a spontaneous question popped at the dinner table one day, or others, an influence from friends or television. The random question approach scares many parents. Hey, even after being surrounded by music my whole life, when 9 year old Travis asked for his guitar, my parents were more than hesistant.

As an instructor, I've heard numerous times that families are afraid to make an investment in something that the child could eventually give up and let sit in the corner for years. Sure! This could happen, and in my experiences growing up I've seen a bunch of my friends buy guitars and let them sit in their room, but hear me out.

Buying a guitar, either acoustic or electric, with everything you need, is going to cost you less than $150. Buying three Xbox games, is going to cost you $180. Do these games provide endless hours of entertainment? Arguable. Do they force you to think, develop, and grow as a person? Arguable, but not really. Are they eventually going to sit on the shelf after your son or daughter "beats" them? Yeah, definetely. 

As a disclaimer, I'm in no position to bash videogames. I'm a college student and trust me, we LOVE our videogames...

Parents should take that risk, take that initial investment, and risk having the guitar sitting in the corner for the next 10 years. Why? There's a pretty good chance it won't be that way. A good chunk of my friends, my passion for music, and now my college education, stem from that initial "crazy" risk that my parents took over 10 years ago.

So please, for the sake of a potential hidden talent, hidden passion, and even hidden love, take that risk, parents. Throw your kids a guitar, a drumpad, or whatever it is that they wanna play for it could be the best thing to ever happen to them.

Thanks for reading! Please feel free to email me at tjf287@nyu.edu, or shoot me a tweet @travisfodor for any blog post ideas for next week! Cheers!